Media Center PC Tuner

Would someone recommend a tv tuner for my desktop m8400f, that will allow me to watch whatever I'm watching on the internet, such as HULU? My apologies if someone has asked that question this year or last year already. Thx,

Hi,
HP has only USB Tuner from their Shopping Site:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/computer/categories/tv_accessories/1/accessories/KS523AA%2523ABA
However, you can purchase PCI TV Tuner Card from their Parts Store that was shipped with other PC Models.
You may want to purchase newest TV Tuner Card from Hauppauge which model HP PCs are shipped with
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods.html
Thank You.
Kiran Talluri
Say thanks by clicking the "Kudos! Star" which is on the left.
Make it easier for other people to find solutions, by marking my answer "Accept as Solution" if it solves your issue

Similar Messages

HP ASUS Media Center TV Tuner FM PVR PCI Card P/N: 5188-4214 = SOFTWARE, Drivers and Oper. Manual

I have pluged this info in but for some reason it can not the product or anything about it.
I need to find: Software, Drivers as well as a operators Manual and any other information on the product, I just bought this item 1 month ago, New but it was just the card nothing else in the box with it. I thought their would at least be enough to get me going in the right direction. It was made for HP by ASUS but it seems no one knows about it? I do ned some help with this problem. I do not even know if it uses a remote!
I have it in a emachines T5212 with a Dual-Core Processorer, OS: Microsoft Windows XP PRO w/SP3, I also run MS Office 2007 Pro. Can anyone help with this?
Thank you until we talk again, peace be with you and yours.
RedThunder

Actually the simplest solution, as there seem to be next to no drivers available for your PC at the HP support page, would be to go here and order the HP Restore CD. You will need
both the PC name ( which was what you posted earlier) and the and product number for when you order the CD. Try CTRL+ALT+S and see if the product
information becomes visible.
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Multiple users in Media Center w/ I Tunes??

I have a PC with Windows Media Center. Multiple accounts , wife, daughter etc. I would like any user to be able to access my I Tunes library to play music while on PC?
How do I share the I Tunes with them?
Thanks

This should help (the info for Windows is about half-way down the page):
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer
Cheers.

How can I use the FM tuner in Windows Media Center?

Hi everyone.
New to the threads.
Found this site while looking for answers to a problem I'm having. ?:|
I received my Toshiba Satellite computer as a Christmas gift. I noticed it has a cool FM tuner feature.
I also have been playing around with Windows Media Center.
However, I cannot figure out how to operate the FM tuner inside WMC....?
I added the NXP FM tuner program to the "extras" on WMC, but instead of opening up the tuner inside WMC it just opens the separate program.
Does anyone know how I can use the FM tuner (or a different one perhaps?) inside WMC?
Thank you! :)

Hello
I don't have any experience with this because my Satellite doesnt have FM Tuner but nice discussion about it you can find under
http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=138027
If you will find final solution it will be nice if you can describe own experience with it. It can be useful for other people here.
Bye and good luck!

Windows Media Center, Windows 7 and HP ATSC/Analog TV Tuner

I can't get windows media center to find signals using my TV tuner anymore. I used to be able to watch TV on my computer using either a digital antenna or analog cable, but now I can't.
I'm running Windows 7 (64 bit) on an HPdv6 laptop. I upgraded to windows 7 from vista quite awhile ago, but I can't remember if it stopped working after I installed windows 7 or not. I'm not exactly sure what model number my TV tuner is, but it says it is an HP ATSC/Analog TV Tuner in the device manager. It also says it's manufactured by AverMedia, but it doesn't give the product number or model number. Maybe the tuner isn't compatible with windows 7? There is no way I can find out if I don't know the product number...
I've tried updating the driver for the tuner, but that didn't help. WMC simply can't pick up a signal from the tuner anymore, so all of the channels are fuzzy.
What else can I do?

Nckhammond wrote:
is it still listed in the device manager? its ether an avermedia or hauppauge card. just pick a random win 7 driver for the right brand and force it to install. then update the driver with windows update to get the right one.
Yes, mine is listed in the device manager as HP ATSC/Analog TV Tuner. When I click on its properties, it says it's made by Avermedia. So you're suggesting that I download a random Avermedia driver? I don't understand what that would do... I already tried to update the driver, and it says I have the most recent version. I also checked the HP site to see if they released a different version or something. Nope, same version that I have installed. Still doesn't work.

Lost of HP Digital TV Tuner signal, with Win Media Center, on a random weekly frequency

I have a HP Pavilion dv9500 Notebook, (ref : dv9649em - GY429EA#ABF - CNF73912X6 ) and use a HP Digital TV tuner
bought with an HP notebook Pavilion tx1000, it's an express card tuner format 34, used on the express card port 54 of the dv9500. The dv9500 run on Win vista premium family with pack 2. On a regular random frequency, around one time per week. I lost the TV tuner signal after the record of a program, when it try to record a new program, because window cannot load the driver, in the product manager, the port USB 2 Intel ICH8 EHC 2836 or 283A, have an error. I must uninstall the USB 2 drivers, reinstall it, and do all the reinstallation, of the tuner in the Window Media Center, which is not an automatic process, at the detection of the tuner, and which is a long and boring process. So I'm really fedup of this situation ? Is there someone who have a solution ? Don't you have a solution to solve this bug ?
Thank a lot, of your help.
Christ..

Is this assuming you've selected "antenna" and then "digital" when initialy setting up your tuner in WMC? So ... if you selected set-top box/cable and then went through the process you don't get local HD? And if you select Antenna -> Digital -> and manually input the frequency, then you get HD from your local cable? If so, then this is a pretty cool tip... Thanks!
... an HP employee expressing his own opinion.
Please post rather than send me a Message. It's good for the community and I might not be able to get back quickly. - Thank you.

How to install a CableCARD tuner in your DIY Media Center

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/05/12/how-to-install-a-cablecard-tuner-in-your-diy-media-center/
RAWR *
>

Check this article out
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ting_Linux
Note that it says it is out of date because of pacman. Really all you need to know is that pacman uses signed packages now, so it is now necessary to run the pacman-key stuff. Or set SigLevel = Never in pacman.conf
Edit: IMHO the first method is preferred because it more closely resembles a regular install. Ergo, you will be able to semi follow the beginners guide for config and such.
Last edited by WonderWoofy (2012-08-17 03:42:12)

[TV@Master] ERROR .... TV Tuner & XP Media Center

Hello every body ,, I'm new member in this great site ..
I have PC with :
Intel Desktop Board D915GAV
Pentium 4 Processor 3.4
DDR 400/333 1 GB
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900
Intel High Definition Audio
Hard Disk 120 GB SATA.
MSI TV@nywhere Master
Windows XP Professional Media Center
Now ,, my pc and MSI TV Tuner work properly and I see and record directly without any problem , but the major problem is when I start Media Center to see and record from TV I got this message .
I need your advice and help ..
Thank you ..

the answer is already in the stickies:
Quote
"Windows XP Media Center says that my "tuner hardware is malfunctioning or not installed" but I have installed the latest TV@nywhere drivers from MSI"
Neither the Vox or the TV@nywhere cards are compatible with MCE2005. MCE2005 requires an analogue TV card capable of hardware MPEG2 encoding, or a software DVB-T (digital) card that already receives an MPEG2 video stream over-the-air.
You can however still use the Vox or the TV@nywhere using the MSIPVS software outside of the MCE2005 application.
the only MSI TV products compatible with MCE are the Theater 550PRO and DigiVOX

Mega 865 TV-tuner (the "optional" MSi-tuner) problem, XP media center

I've built a MEGA 865 pro setup, with the optional TV-tuner from MSI.. And installed Windows XP Media Center edition. But the XP media-center doesn't recognize my tv-tuner. Doesn't it support it ?
And does anybody know if the Microsoft Media center keyboard will work with this computer ?

MediaPortal
a good free alternative, but if you have spent money on WinXP MCE, then better to spend a little more getting that working correctly
get a compatible TV tuner and the Microsoft MCE Remote & receiver, forget about InstantOn, and you'll have a nice HTPC system there#
Windows XP Media Center Edition FAQ

Problems w/ TV Tuner Card and Media Center

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else is having this problem:
I just installed the FX5200 TDR-128, with the TV@nywhere card, and the Media Center Deluxe II. I can't get the tv stations to work in MCD II. It works great with MSI PVS software that came with the TV Tuner card. When I go into the "Watch TV" menu of MCD II, it brings up the tv screen but it is all garbled or sometimes a blue screen. I changed all the settings to the appropriate formats and it even has the channels that were scanned in the MSIPVS program. Does anyone know what is causing the channels to not work in the Media Center Deluxe II? Also there is a switch on the VIVO connector that has two settings "Safe" and "Work" what does this switch do? I can't find anything on it in the manual that came with the video card.
P.S. The remote works great.
Motherboard:KT4V-L
CPU: AthlonXP 2400+
RAM: 512Meg DDR400
Video: FX5200 TDR-128
OS: WinXP

Check out the new release 3 upgrade here
It has solved almost all the problems described here. Just came out today too.

Media Center and Aver tuner

I have media center pro on my 8.1 64bit system. I have an AVer tv tuner that is built into system. Media center Electronic program guide no longer working and the program will be gone with the new windows 10. How can I get an EPG for my Aver tuner to schedule recordings of favorite programs. There is none in the Aver settings. I contacted AVer but they said I had to contact hp. Anyone know what is going on?

If you want to keep Windows Media Center 8.1 Pro with Windows Media Center and HDTV recording you can fix the Program Guide updates. The issue was due to the Program Guide provider change on 7/7/2015 discussed here: http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-home-theater-computers/2058850-big-wmc-guide-changes-starting-today.html What I did was re-setup the TV signal within WMC which switched the Program Guide to the new service provider: Tasks>Settings>TV>TV Signal>Setup Up TV Signal On my system it found many new channels that didn't work. I removed them from the channel line up using: Tasks>Settings>Guide>Edit Channels. I have looked into a TV recording/program guide replacement for Windows 10 and if you have a Hauppauge TV tuner card, they do have a Windows 10 software offering on their home page at hauppauge.com.

How do I get fios to work with my new desktop w/ Windows Media Center

Can someone please help me I have "fios".TV and internet 1HDSTB + 1HDDVR with multi room dvr Home media mgr.how do I get fios to work with my new desktop HP Pavillion m9715f**(specs below)**w/ Windows Media Center or did I just throw away my money?
also equipted is 47" Samsung 850series 1080p 120hertz HD LCD TV + 36" Samsung 560series 1080p 60hertz HD LCD TV and 19"Samsung 950b LCD Monitor
** computer specs**
Product number NZ017AA
Introduction date 30-Jun-2009
Country/region sold in: United States,Canada
Hardware Base processor
Phenom-9650 (A) 2.3 GHz (95W) 3600 MHz HyperTransport 3.0 Socket, AM2+
Chipset AMD 780G
Motherboard Manufacturer: MSI Motherboard Name: MS-7548 HP/Compaq motherboard name: Aspen-GL8E
Power supply 300W
Memory
Component Attributes Memory Installed 8 GB Maximum allowed 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) (64-bit OS)
4 GB* (4 x 1 GB) (32-bit OS)
*Actual available memory may be less Speed supported PC2-6400 MB/sec Type 240 pin, DDR2
Hard drive750 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)7200 rpm
Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe Technology drive
This Blu-Ray Disc DVD drive introduces a player that reads Blu-ray Disc format enabling you to watch high-definition Blu-ray Disc movies. NOTE: This drive does not include high-definition write capability.
Formats/Disc types Write speeds Read speeds Storage capacity Blu-ray Disc BD-ROM SL NA up to 6X up to 25 GB BD-ROM DL NA up to 4.8X up to 50 GB BD-R SL not supported up to 6X up to 25 GB BD-R DL not supported up to 4.8X up to 50 GB BD-RE SL not supported up to 2.3X up to 25 GB BD-RE DL not supported up to 2X up to 50 GB HD DVD not supported DVD DVD-ROM SL NA up to 16X up to 4.7 GB DVD-ROM DL NA up to 8X up to 8.5 GB DVD+R SL up to 16X up to 12X up to 4.7 GB DVD+R DL up to 4X up to 8X up to 8.5 GB DVD+RW SL up to 8X up to 10X up to 4.7 GB DVD+RW DL not supported DVD-R SL up to 16X up to 12X up to 4.7 GB DVD-R DL up to 4X up to 8X up to 8.5 GB DVD-RW SL up to 6X up to 10X up to 4.7 GB DVD-RW DL not supported DVD-RAM up to 5X up to 5X up to 4.7 GB CD CDROM NA up to 40X up to 700 MB CDR up to 40X up to 40X up to 700 MB CDRW up to 24X up to 40X up to 700 MB CD-DA NA up to 32X up to 700 MB Video CD NA up to 10X up to 700 MB
Wireless Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g
Video Graphics Radeon HD4350
512 MB DDR2 memory
I/O Ports: HDMI, VGA, single-link DVI
Television Hauppauge ATSC/NTSC TV tuner card with FM tuner
Sound/Audio High Definition 8-channel audio
ALC 888S chipset
Network (LAN) Integrated 10/100/1000 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
Contains an Infrared receiver for remote control
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
IBM Microdrive
Secure Digital (SD)
mini-SD
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)
MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
SmartMedia
xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panel
Port type Quantity 15-in-1 (4 slot) with IR Receiver One USB Two Headphone One Microphone One Audio L-R One S-video in One Composite video in One
I/O ports on the back panel
Port type Quantity PS/2 (keyboard, mouse) Two S/PDIF out (coaxial) One VGA One (disabled due to the installation of a graphics card) DVI-D One USB Four 1394a One LAN One Audio (side speaker out, rear speaker out, center/subwoofer-out , line-in, line-out, microphone) One Each
Expansion slots
Slot type Quantity PCI Express x16 One (None available) PCI Express x1 Three (Two available)
Drive bays
Bay type Quantity 5.25" Two (One available) 3.5" Two (One available) Personal Media Drive One (One available) Pocket Media Drive One (One available)
Keyboard and mouse HP multimedia keyboard HP PS/2 optical mouse
Remote Control USB infrared remote control,Remote control expansion card with IR ports,IR emitter cable to transmit codes to a set top box

Based on what you've posted, your computer does not have the right tuner. You need a QAM tuner to record locals from FiOS, or a CableCard tuner to record all local and cable channels from FiOS.
QAM tuners to record local channels only
This requires Windows Vista or Windows 7
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250
SiliconDust HDHomeRun (info on a sale)
CableCard tuner to record local and cable channels
This requires Windows 7 + one CableCard from Verizon for $3.99/mo
ATI TV Wonder Digital PC CableCard Tuner (records one channel at a time) -- $200-$250 on ebay
Ceton MOCUR tuner (records four channels at a time) -- coming in early 2010 for $400-$600
Make sure your computer has Windows 7 Home Premium (or better) installed. That's necessary to support CableCard tuners.
If you are the original poster (OP) and your issue is solved, please remember to click the "Solution?" button so that others can more easily find it.

Can any one help me with CD/Audio disc playback problem on media center m8200n running Windows Vista

I have HP Media Center m8200n Dest top running WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM 32 BIT edition.It has MEDIA CENTER and MEDIA PLAYER. I experience problems with the computer being able to play CD music discs. What happens is that the Disc will play only for 63 seconds exactly and then stop playing the track, the player will then skip tracks, settle on another one, play it for a few moments and then skip to the end and then play nothing. It gives me an error message that it cannot read the disc. This happens with any and every standard store bought CD new or used. These CDs also do play on my laptop running basically same operating system. This happens whether I trying to Play a disc or burn the disc to the hard drive. The drives work great though as they do play DATA discs all the way through. MP3 discs play fine. It also plays the DVD movies with no problem. Windows media player doesn't make it work, also installed VLC player and REALPLAYER to try some other players and they also don't work for music, only DVDs. They all only produce 63 seconds of music play back from a disc. I've already tried Changing ENHANCEMENTS, UPDATING DRIVERS, UNINSTALLING THE DISC DRIVE and then re-installing back into WINDOWS but none of that helped. SYSTEM came with the integrated REALTEK HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO on the mother boad for multi channel playback options and I've downloaded those updated drivers again but that doesn't do anything. Thinking it might be a hardware drive problem I purchased a new LG BLU-RAY DRIVE/BURNER super multi drive which plays fantastic for any video format from Blu-Ray to regular DVD format with the Power DVD software but the machine is causing even this new drive to have the same problem with the audio and it cuts out playing the audio disc within the same 63 seconds running audio disc. . There seems to be a software glitch and I'm wondering if you can help. Also the sound card seems to work perfectly fine. I downloaded I-Tunes and copied over audio files to the computer via my flash drive and when I play those files from the hard drive, or even the sample windows media files which reside on the hard drive in MY MUSIC, all files play through perfectly, fully, and with great sound. Audio out jacks in back of computer work fine as also does the front head phone jacks upfront. Something in the software when playing a audio disc/file through the dic drives???? I've got hundreds of CD and it's a bummer not beng able to lay them through the system. Does anyone think moving from VISTA PREMIUM to a upgraded version like ULTIMATE or even going up to Windows 7 might solve problem??? What about the 32 bit verses 64 bit editions??? My system should be able to run in the 64 bit frame work also. THANK YOU in advance!!!

Hi,
All dimms work individually? Did you run a bootable memory diagnostic to determine the reliability? Did you run a diagnostic on the hard drive? I believe that your PC came with PC Doctor and that you can create a bootable diagnostic disk. Did you create that disk? Be sure to purchase memory dimms from a manufacturer that will stand behind their product with a guarantee such as Crucial, Corsair or Kingston. Buy directly from the manufacturer and they will stand behind the guarantee. Be sure that all of the dimms are identical. Use CPU-Z to determine that the specifications are indeed identical.
You have some options to consider once you can stablize your PC for updating the BIOS.
Locate a hard drive and use the HP external recovery media to build a VISTA system. -- safest method
Use a VISTA repair disk and at the command prompt try executing the HP BIOS update (Admin). -- safe
Try a bootable BIOS update process as suggested at this site. -- less safe but doable
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

Windows XP Media Center Edition FAQ

What is a Media Center PC?
It is basically a regular PC, but designed to fit into your home entertainment system to replace your DVD player, Hi-Fi, TV set-top box, as well as allowing other functions as email, web browsing and more, all from the comfort of your armchair, or elsewhere
Many new Media Center PCs (MCPCs or Home Theatre PCs - HTPCs) are styled like hi-fi components to blend in under your TV, while many are regular PCs with extra multimedia functions.
What is Windows XP Media Center Edition?
Windows XP Media Center Edition (or XP MCE for short) is basically Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2) without advanced networking support (but including Remote Desktop Connection) and extra applications to turn your PC into a fully fledged Home Theatre PC (HTPC). The main Microsoft Media Center appplication allows a full screen interface suitable for viewing on TVs (pictured below left) and controlled by an easy to use Microsoft remote control device (below right), so you can watch and record TV, view DVDs and listen to audio CDs and digital music files.
How do I get WinXP MCE?
At the time of writing, XP MCE is only available as an OEM pack which you can purchase from your nearest dealer or online reseller, or if pre-installed on a purchased system. MCE is currently only available as a 32bit (x86) version, but works on 64bit systems.
The Media Center application is also included with the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.
How do I install WinXP MCE?
MCE installs the same way as any other version of Windows XP. However it cannot be installed as an upgrade, you must do a clean install. MCE comes on two disks; a WinXP XP SP2 disc, and the MCE extras disc. Boot from CD1 as you would normally when installing Windows. The setup screens will indicate Windows XP Professional, this is normal. During the graphic part of the install process, you will be prompted to insert CD2. This is obviously the second CD of the set which you should insert, as it contains the necessary extra Media Center enhancements. When it is done, Setup will ask you for the "Windows XP SP2 CD". It is actually just asking for the first disc again, so reinsert it and let it continue.
When install is complete, the system will reboot, and you will see the normal Windows XP desktop, though with a slightly different theme. To begin using the Media Center program straight away, click on Media Center in the Start Menu to begin the Media Center Setup wizard.
What graphics hardware is required for MCE to work correctly?
MCE works with DirectX 9.0c, so ideally your hardware at a minimum needs to be DirectX 9.0 compatible.
MCE requires a minimum of 64mb video RAM (shared or dedicated), 128mb recommended for the full visual "eye-candy" interface effects.
For Nvidia GPU chipsets, MCE drivers can be found here: nVidia Drivers. You'll need at least a Geforce FX5200 for MCE to work (however I have it running on an integrated Geforce 4 MX with no problems).
For ATI GPU chipsets, drivers for MCE can be found here: ATi Drivers. You'll need at least a 9250 for MCE to work, but I understand that the 9200 may also suffice.
Unfortunately, I understand that SiS and Via (S3) chipsets (as found on many mobos with integrated VGA) are NOT MCE compatible. Some Intel integrated VGA chipsets will work now, you should refer to Intel's website for updated drivers. I also understand that Via have introduced MCE compatible drivers for their Epia SP13000 ITX board, again refer to Via's website for correct drivers. However, it is recommended to use an add-in VGA card for best results, unless you have a new board which has integrated Geforce 6100 or ATI Xpress chipsets
What TV hardware works with MCE?
In order to display TV output, MCE requires an MPEG2 stream to display. It cannot encode this itself, so requires a hardware based TV tuner / capture card, such as the Hauppage PVR MCE series, or the MSI Theater 550PRO (above left). The card receives analog video through the aerial connection, or svideo / composite inputs, encodes it into MPEG2 format, which MCE can display.
This type of analog card is required to connect a cable or satellite box (eg Telewest, NTL or Sky in UK). Using the Microsoft remote receiver, two supplied IR blasters affix to the set-top box, so MCE can automatically change channels when needed.
For best picture quality on digital TV though, you can use a software-based DVB-T card, such as the Hauppauge Nova-T or the Black Gold DVB-T (above right). Using a regular aerial, these receive high quality digital terrestrial (OTA) signals (eg the Freeview service in UK), which are broadcast in MPEG2 format, and therefore no encoding is required. In the USA, ATSC is the digital terrestrial standard used, as DVB is not available there.
Unfortunately UK users of DVB-T cards will currently not be able to make use of DVB subtitles, interactive text-based services such as Teletext and BBCi, or listen to the Digital Radio services available on Freeview. UK DVB Digital Audio services are now available with MCE Rollup 2.
Unlike with VGA cards, MCE requires that your TV hardware has special BDA (Broadcast Driver Architecture) drivers which are MCE compatible. Check your hardware manufacturers website for compatible drivers.
Unfortunately, analogue TV hardware that is software-driven (such as MSI TV@nywhere and Vox) won't work in MCE.
Windows Vista Media Center will introduce support for cable (DVB-C) and satellite (DVB-S)tuner cards
Do I need any other software to make MCE work?
As MCE is essentially based around Windows Media Player 10, you will be aware that WMP cannot play DVDs until you install a suitable DVD codec. This is also the case with MCE, as until you install this MPEG2 codec, MCE won't play ANY video (including TV). So you will also need to purchase additional MCE compatible DVD player software, such as Cyberlink PowerDVD 6, Intervideo WinDVD 6, or Nvidia's DVD Decoder MPEG codec. Results can be varied using different codecs, so it is best to try a trial version of such software to see which gives you the best results before purchasing. You may find that suitable DVD software may already be supplied with some VGA or TV tuner cards.
Anything else I need?
You will also require an internet connection (not imperative, but certainly very useful) in order for MCE to access the internet in order to find and download TV guide listings, and album and artist information when playing CDs, MP3s and WMAs.
Without guide information, you will have to manually schedule TV recordings, and no programme information will be available.
If you are planning on having your Media Center in your living room, the Microsoft Remote Controller will allow you to control all aspects of the MCE interface without the need for a keyboard or mouse connected.
If you are connecting your Media Center to your TV, then your video display device will need TV-out capabilities (S-Video or Composite). S-Video offers better picture quality over composite video, but you will need to ensure your TV supports S-Video input, otherwise you will just see black and white video.
If your TV supports RGB inputs, then you may be able to obtain a VGA > RGB adaptor, which offers even better picture quality (search with Google, there are lots of sites about this). Many modern LCD and plasma TVs also support direct VGA / DVI inputs. VGA > RGB/SCART is only compatible with ATI Radeon VGA cards.
Can I watch one channel while recording another?
Yes, but you will need two identical TV devices, eg 2x DVB-T cards. You cannot have one analogue card, and one digital, as MCE presumes both hardware devices receive same channels, and can pick and choose between them. (However in the USA, you may have two analogue tuners, and one HDTV tuner)
This is straightforward when using two identical DVB-T cards. MCE has a channel list and guide data, so for example you are watching BBC1 on one tuner, MCE uses the other tuner to record the other programme on ITV2. Both cards are receiving the same input.
It gets a little more complicated if you want to do the same with a paid subscription service, such as NTL Cable or Sky Satellite in UK. As well as having two matching tuners (although I understand that some companies, including Hauppage, are releasing "dual-tuner" cards) you will also require two set-top boxes, with a subscription for each, as MCE needs to be able to change the channel on each set-top box seperately.
Good links....
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 homepage
The Green Button - very good MCE community forum
MCESoft - for all sorts of plug-ins and extras for MCE
XPMCE.com - Windows Media Center forums
ukShazam.com - Media Center help & more
Note: MSI is not responsible for the content of external links[/b]
Look out for me in the XPMCE forums if you need further help!
That's about it for now, hope you find it useful. As I think of (meaning "remember" ) other stuff I'll add it above. If you know something that I've missed out, please post below with as much info as you can, and I'll add it to the guide, with a credit to you!
If you need help to solve a problem or want to ask a question, then START your own thread, with as much info as you can, please do NOT post in this thread, this thread is only for tricks,tips and useful reference info.

For some reason when using the "certified" MCE version of the Forceware drivers, after a short while all the buttons in the menus become "corrupted"
The simple solution: use regular XP/2000 version of Forceware drivers. They still work perfectly in MCE2005, and the graphical corruption doesn't appear.
nVidia Drivers
EDIT: this problem appears to have been corrected in the recent Rollup 2 Update

Windows Media Center on my HP TouchSmart PC won't switch channels on my attached Cable Box.

Have a Motorola DCX3501-M DVR (cable box) connected to my HP TouchSmart PC (Win 7 64-bit) in order to view and record HDTV channels. Problem is I can't get Windows Media Center to communicate with the cable box properly, e.g., when I select a channel to view in WMC (using the PC's remote control) it does not tell the cable box to switch to that channel. I have the IR cable connected from the rear of the PC and affixed to the front panel of the cable box. How can I get the cable box to work properly with this PC?

Hello Curly2U:
Did you connect the IR cables correctly ?http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Video-Solutions/Products/Video-CPE/All-Digital-Set-Tops/DCX3501-... Now I look up your cable box. Take the IR cable that is connected from p.c. IR out port and plug the other end directly into EXT IR IN port. Next to IEEE 1384 and Power Cord ports. I really do not see how a p.c. remote can control any thing but the computer because these remotes do not have a option to add codes to them like a universal remote does. They also do not have special butons to allow you to contol other devices such as tv's or stereos and cable boxes like a universal remote does. I checked our Help and Support and did not see anything about mentioning controlling other devices.
You might want to by pass the cable box altogether and directly plug the cable antenna wire directly into the computer and see if it can tune in cable channels. You might not need the cable box after all. There are two antenna ports on your computer try switching the cable antenna arround. I found out one antenna port olnly picked up one channel and when I switched the cable cable arround I was able to pick up all the channels.

Media Center PC Tuner

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